Classic Slipcovers or Furniture Upholstery?

Deciding between classic slipcovers and furniture upholstery can be a difficult decision. I looked at all the pros and cons and came to an easy decision. And I love the outcome.

When it comes to having chairs and sofas redone, there are usually two choices, classic slipcovers or furniture upholstery.

Either will give you a lovely end result – a new outside garment for a piece of solid furniture. But how do you decide between slipcover or upholstery? It’s important to consider the use, the condition of the furniture piece, and cost.

We have a lot of slipcovers in our home. I have two slipcovered sofas in the living room, a chair and a white sectional with slipcovers in the family room, and two slipcovered sectionals and a slipcovered sofabed in the beach house. I also have three slipcovered chairs in our home, including one I made myself!

This was my first slipcover project and it’s far from perfect. But I love this slipcovered chair.

Classic Slipcovers or Furniture Upholstery

So which is it? Slipcovers or upholstery?

Here are some questions to consider when making this choice:

• How is the piece of furniture used?
• Is it likely to get dirty and will you want to be able to throw the slipcover in the laundry?
• Is there a lot of wood on the piece that might make a slipcover not practical?
• Is your piece of furniture worth saving?

If your couch or chair is well built and sturdy then you will probably want to invest the money and pay to have your piece reupholstered or slipcovered. If the furniture is well made and has quality workmanship, then do it.

If the furniture is cheap and flimsy, don’t bother. I think second-hand or vintage furniture is usually well made and better constructed than what most of us are buying today. Unfortunately buying quality, new furniture today is very expensive.

A few years ago I was trying to decide what to do with my living room sofas. I absolutely loved the slipcovers that my friend Liz Marie Galvan had in her home. Those pleats are to die for!

I love the look of Liz Marie Galvin’s slipcovers 

I finally decided to send our living room couches out to be slipcovered. That’s because they use to look like this. The couches were well made but dated and “grungy looking”. 

I really wanted a lighter and more neutral palette in our living room. And you can find out why here.

All I did was print a photo of Liz’s chairs and hand it to my local upholstery guy. I told him I wanted my couches to have a pleat like hers! Please feel free to do the same with mine!

Which is More Expensive?

I found it interesting that the labor was much cheaper for slipcovers. For example, it cost me $300 to have a slipcover made for a chair whereas it was $400 to have the same chair upholstered. It also costs $300 more to have my sofa upholstered than to have a slipcover made.

The fabric yardage amount and cost were the same for a slipcover or upholstery. I chose slipcovers because they are more practical to wash (especially since I chose white fabric) and I just like the look more of slipcovers versus upholstery.

Cleaning

I think cleaning is the biggest variant between classic slipcovers and furniture upholstery. I love that I can take a slipcover off, spray it with stain remover, and bleach it in the laundry. About 99% of the stains come out using my slipcover cleaning formula (it will be on the blog tomorrow). After a few years, you can always get a new slipcover made.

With upholstered furniture, you have to spot clean, and sometimes the stain doesn’t come out So what’s the alternative? Getting the entire couch reupholstered? Hmmm.

The End Result

Don’t these slipcovers look a gazillion times better than the “before” photo above?

Here are some of the items featured in our living room.

Plus, look at how the style of the couches even looks different. In the before photo, the style looked dated. But now, with the white slipcovers, they look great.

And the best part?

The fabric was prewashed so I can wash them anytime. The slipcovers are also sprayed with Stainmaster which helps prevent stains.

Be sure and check back tomorrow with my post on how to clean and wash your slipcovers.

Links to Items Similar to this Post

Did you know Amazon carries slipcovers for IKEA Extorp furniture? There are some links below.

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